Spied! 2014 Jeep Liberty - Inside and Out

Long-Overdue Midsize Jeep Radical Change from Predecessor

By Edward A. Sanchez

Truck Trend, January 28, 2013

With each passing month, the camouflage on the successor to the dated Jeep Liberty gets thinner and thinner. What started as an awkwardly-cobbled mule loosely based on an Alfa Romeo Giulietta has now morphed into what's looking more and more like a production-ready vehicle.

The 2014 model-year replacement for the Liberty will be the most radical departure for the line yet. It will migrate to a car-based crossover platform with a transverse engine and a nine-speed automatic transmission, more than twice the ratios that were in the Liberty's four-speed transmission.

The new Jeep will likely also be the debut of the new, smaller 3.2-liter Pentastar V-6, the first displacement variation of the engine family since the debut of the engine in 2011, when it was offered solely as a 3.6-liter unit in both front and rear-drive applications. Official output figures are not known, but horsepower in the range of 250 and torque output of between 220-240 lb-ft are likely.

The interior shots also show a contemporary design with Chrysler's now-characteristic 8.4-inch touchscreen interface. Unlike the new Ram 1500 equipped with the eight-speed transmission, the Liberty successor appears to have a conventional console-mounted shifter.

After getting some criticism for some past Jeep models not carrying the "Trail Rated" badge, the new model is expected to have solid, if not Rubicon-conquering off-road capability. We get a clue to the new model's tractive options with the console-mounted control knob. We can't completely make out all the markings, but we do see "4WD", "Snow", "Sport", and what appears to be some variation of 4WD. A true low-range, perhaps? Let's hope our eyes aren't deceiving us.

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By Edward A. Sanchez

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